A Sayonara
by Sunshine Depression
Summary: Hiroyasu Ueda was married to his persocom, Yumi, for some time before she was tragically killed. Now see the story from her perspective. I'm sorry about the summary. Oneshot.


He was the first one that she saw when she opened her eyes. She did not know him, so she did what her programming told her to do.

"Konnichiwa!" she smiled and said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Hiroyasu Ueda," he said, returning the smile. His eyes sparkled pleasingly. "You may call me Hiro."

Soon after, she was given the name Yumi. She found joy in hearing her name. She also enjoyed the sparkle of her master's eyes. It was a strong joy that made her smile. She didn't question the nature of her smile, or that of her happiness. She didn't care exactly what caused this. She let it stay, though, because it made Hiro's eyes sparkle. With each passing week, her smiles arose more and more often, and so did the sparkle in Hiro's eyes. Hiro treated her so kindly, and didn't yell when she occasionally forgot things. In return, whenever something happened to make Hiro's sparkle disappear, whenever something made him; Yumi didn't know the word, but "break" was as close as she could come, she would do whatever she could to make him right again.

Then came the day when he asked her to marry him. She had to take a moment to respond, because she had to wrack her software for the definition of "marry."

"To promise to be together forever, usually with someone that you love," was the rough definition that she found. She wasn't entirely sure of what "love" meant, but she wanted to be with Hiroyasu forever and make him smile, so she said yes. His eyes sparkled.

They sparkled all through the ceremony. She couldn't pull herself away from those sparkling eyes. To be like this forever... it would be very enjoyable.

It would have been perfect, completely flawless, if Yumi didn't keep forgetting things. They were little things, like numbers or kinds of cakes, and then bigger things, like how to get home or use a door. There was nothing in her programming that told her how to handle this situation, so she pretended that there was nothing wrong with her.

Hiro always stayed by her side to guide her. He took her places with lots of them; the ones that relied on their programming and not on a "brain"; the ones like her. Yumi would have liked to hear what they said after the examinations that they put her through, but Hiro made them whisper the results to him.

Yumi saw that her memory was causing Hiro to look badly broken, but was at a loss for a solution. She watched as the beautiful sparkle disappeared from his eyes, and there was nothing that she could do to comfort him. She would have given anything to make him right again.

It just continued to get worse and worse until one day she forgot the most important thing of all.  
She turned to Hiro, about to speak, and she suddenly thought:

"I don't know this person." She didn't know this man, or this place, though they were so close to being familiar that it strained her CPU trying to remember. Soon, her programming gave up on remembering, and issued a simple command. So she did what her programming told her to do.

"Konnichiwa!" she smiled and said. "Who are you?" The man beside her looked puzzled for a moment, and then gave her a small smile. She wasn't sure, but something appeared to be wrong with the smile, as though it wasn't quite whole. "I'm Hiroyasu Ueda, but you may call me Hiro. You are my Yumi, my wife, remember?" She shook her head, "no." It strained and hurt her hard drive, trying to remember.

"That's okay," he said, patting her on the shoulder. A drop of water trailed down his cheek.

Those words... she said them so often now, but never remembered having said them before.

"Konnichiwa! Who are you?" Every once in a while, she'd remember something, just a little bit. She'd say something about it, or just give him a look, and Hiro would look a little more right again. Once, the glimmer of gold on her finger caught her eye.

"What is this?" she asked the man beside her, holding out her ring finger.

"That's your wedding ring," he said. "You got it when we got married. Do you remember that?" She shook her head, "no." The word "married" was missing from her vocabulary.

"That's okay," said the man. She saw water pooled at the bottoms of his eyes before he blinked and looked away. "I still love you."

Her memory soon got so bad that she had no clue about what to do on her own. She could barely speak comprehensibly and relied on a strange man to guide her. If she was left alone, even for a minute, she would wander off without even thinking about where she was going. All that she had left was blind trust.

One dreary day, she was walking with this almost familiar man. It was raining and they both carried umbrellas. The man seemed distant as he walked, though she couldn't identify the cause. As they crossed a street, she saw a car. It was coming straight towards her and the man guiding her. And then, in that instant, something clicked and Yumi remembered again.  
"Hiro!" she thought, and in that same little instant, she ran in front of him, taking the blow.

As she lay on the street, she looked up and saw a strange, almost familiar man. She didn't know him, so she did what her programming told her to do.

"Konnichiwa..." she smiled faintly and said. She closed her eyes for the final time.

It was more of a sayonara.


End file.
